Your recollection is awful. Calfornia drivers are about the worst in the country. Flashing lights / Lights out, be prepared for the most incompetent driving you will ever witness. I was always told how great the freeways are designed, how great the drivers are, and how well maintained the roads are. The northeast dealing with freeze/thaw cycles has better maintained roads. People here are too stupid to pull off to the shoulder when they have a minor fender bender or their car starts to stall. Everyone NEEDS to be in the left lane. I have been cut off by soccer mom merging onto the freeway at 50 while the flow is 70 and she just floats across 4 lanes so she can park it in the far left. Maryland and the surrounding areas are impressive how quickly people will get out of the left lane. I've driven for miles in CA with 4 dumbasses driving the same exact speed side by side by side by side.

The pay offered was pretty good. There are unfortunately tons of awful developers out there. The good ones find a position they like are pretty much settle in. I have a network of very good developers who when a contract ends / company goes out of business, I will immediately refer them where ever I am at the time because I know how crappy a lot of available IT workers are.

I get a pretty good feel for what level someone is when they complain about not being able to find a position. Any time a contract runs out or I am ready to move on, I easily find a new position. On the other hand, I've heard script kiddies crying that they know perl / php / ruby... and can't find a job. Yet it is those same ones with YEARS of experience who code everything inline, don't know how to utilize classes, look at me funny when I ask why they aren't using a dictionary....

BTW, I don't pay for IT workers, I am a developer myself, I've just been pulled in a lot to help with screaning. But when someone who doesn't know what an interface is and wants $100/hr, I usually try to find out where they currently work. And these aren't fringe cases, I get to interview these people back to back. It amazes me that companies are WILLING to pay so much for so little.